March 22, 2010

Hey everbody!

So it is my first p-day in Rivne and I am grateful. We have been so busy and I am still not fully over the sleep deficiency - about 3 in 36ish hours and then a night train after my first night in Kyiv - but I am still excited to get out and to work hard. Right now, I have two companions in Rivne (it is just the three of us in this city and in our own little district. Rivne is a city of about 275,000, one of the smallest in the mission), Elder Monson - who may be related to the prophet distantly and Elder Tkachenko from Odessa who is heading out to the MTC in two weeks -he has been waiting for his visa. The two of them are so helpful and I am very grateful to be working with them. They are both really young trainers - Elder Monson has only been out in the field for 6 months and Elder Tkachenko has only been out for 2 while waiting, but they are both great teachers and I am learning so much from them. The language has been a little overwhelming (there is a lot of Sergic here which is the Russian and Ukrainian mix) and lessons are tough but I am starting to get more comfortable and the language is coming. I have little bits to say in each lesson and I asked Elder Monson to push me so hopefully it comes quickly.

My regular schedule each day is wake up at 6:30 and exercise for half an hour. Then we eat breakfast and get ready before studying from 8 to 10 or 11 depending on the day. After that we go out and try to teach lessons and meet with people or put up ads for english class. Because of problems with the government, we are not allowed to tract in Rivne and we can't really contact either but we have gotten a ton of referrals from the branch members and currently we are well above the mission average for lessons a week. Much of our traveling here is done on Marshrutka, which is like a city bus. They are really cheap and they are fairly quick and they go everywhere. It is pretty fun to get around and to go to the apartments where everyone lives and I am slowing picking up the city layout.

We live here on only $37 a week which is pretty interesting, but it is also neat to see the difference in the way people live. Our $37 gets us by comfortably and luckily as missionaries we aren't really spending it on anything unnecessary, but there are definitely some people here who have less. Our apartment is a pretty small one near the city center and about a ten minute walk from the branch.

The branch here is absolutely awesome. There were about 40 people yesterday at sacrament meeting including a couple of our investigators. It is a pretty solid branch and we are lucky to have the Polyshuk twins who live in Lutsk come over to help on the weekends. Sasha is the MCL and Vova his brother is a counseler to President Didashuk who is a solid member. The Polyshuks both served in Russia recently on mission and there is a member named Ira who just returned this past week and she is excited to help. Yesterday we had MCM in the morning at 10 and then sacrament at 11 where I introduced myself and bore testimony. Some of the members were apparentely surprised at how well I spoke so that is a good sign. We have been very busy with lessons and I am excited to keep working hard with the members and with my companions.

I love you all very much and want you to know that I am doing just fine in Ukraine. It is so beautiful and I have already had some experiences that I have never before had in America and it is great to be here to serve the people and the Lord.

Love,
Elder Jones